Improved wet performance characteristic is a known goal for tire designers. This can be achieved by selective tread compounding, tire engineering, or tread designing. When the tread design is modified to improve the wet performance of the tire, the goal is to quickly move the water out of the contact patch formed between the tire and the pavement. Water is typically evacuated from the contact patch through the tread grooves.
Grooves modified to improve water flow performance have focused on widening the grooves, sloping the sides of the grooves, inclining the grooves relative to the equatorial plane of the tire. All of these variations have helped to move the water.